Many children are injured or killed in traffic accidents at school bus stops. In a rush to catch a school bus in the morning or get home in the afternoon, children often fail to look both ways before entering a road, resulting in children being struck by oncoming vehicles. In an effort to reduce such incidents, all 50 states have laws require motorists to stop when a school bus is picking up or dropping of children. Most buses come equipped with stop-arms to notify motorists in the vicinity that the bus is either dropping off or picking up children and thus the motorists must come to a complete stop.
Many motorists fail to yield to stopped school buses (hereinafter referred to as “stop-arm violations”), even though such motorists risk severe penalties if observed by a law enforcement officer. However, law enforcement officers cannot follow school buses throughout an entire route, thus most incidents of stop-arm violations result in no consequences for the motorist. Stop-arm violations have become such a problem that in the state of North Carolina 2,000 stop-arm violations occur every day according to Bus Fleet Magazine. On a national level, that could easily translate into tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of violations each day.
While school bus drivers may be employed to crack down on stop-arm violations, bus drivers generally need to focus their attention on the children on the bus. Consequently, bus drivers may not have the time to record license plate numbers of these dangerous motorists.
Accordingly, a better means for discouraging stop-arm violations through better identification of motorists committing stop-arm violations is needed.